Handicapped and disabled persons are of necessity restricted to the use of wheelchairs for movement from place to place. However such persons frequently wish to travel, for example, or may be requird to be moved in or out of an institution such as a hospital, nursing home, or the like. In these circumstances the disabled person will necessarily have luggage which must also be carried. For example, in airport terminals, a disabled person must be wheeled into the terminal and onto the aircraft, in a wheelchair. The luggage of that person must be handled separately and checked in. On arrival at the destination the person must be wheeled from the aircraft and the luggage must then be collected from the luggage bay, and both luggage and the disabled person in the wheelchair must then be passed through Customs and Immigration.
Airports usually provide sufficient wheelchairs for moving such persons on to and off aircraft. However, the operation of such a wheelchair requires an attendant or ground crew person. The carrying of the luggage into the terminal, for checking in and out of the luggage bay and through Customs and Immigration for checking out, usually requires a second attendant or ground crew.
Since such attendants are already overworked, it clearly places an extra burden on the airport staff to provide two such attendants for each disabled person.
The present invention solves the problem by providing a wheelchair with facilities for carrying luggage for the person carried in the wheelchair. In this way, a single attendant could wheel the wheelchair together with the luggage into and out of the airport.